My hope was that you would all take the events of the last few chapters to be the joke themselves. "Yeah, right! Like you'd actually kill Adonis! On April 1st? I'll just wait for the real chapter, thank you very much!"

The joke would be that there was no joke, and that those are the actual chapters. Of course, there's a twist on them coming, but I don't want to spoil what's in store...

Arkrite wrote:Though for the crime of perpetrating my most disliked trope "depowering supers and killing them like scrubs" I am now gleefully waiting for Vincent Haynes' demise.

Anytime the story shifts to Patriot Robotics, progress slows down. Largely, this is due to Noah's little hit squad being so bland and boring that I don't really like writing them. It's one of those concepts I dug, but could never really bring myself to execute well. To that end, they needed to die, and this helped Vincent go from Yes-Man to someone who can take care of himself.

In any case, I assure you that I'm about to take worse tropes and apply them to this story.

McGuffin wrote:As much as I used to like Prompt it's kind of sad to see her out-Loder Maggie. The good guys already have their hands full and now they have to deal with her?

Wait and see.

Arthur Eld wrote:The fact that there are two Prodigies is another reason I'm planning on having Jason change his name once the Laputa arc is over.

Pffft, way to create a time paradox, Eld!

Honestly, this gave me the opportunity to play with something I've always wanted to do: who regulates hero names? What stops someone from having the same name? Is there a list somewhere out there? Sure, The Tick played with the idea, but I've wanted to touch on it for a while.

What I didn't touch on? An earlier draft of these chapters had Jay animating Steam's remains and having them follow the group into battle. It led to a confrontation with Solar Flare (who started having flashbacks of his fight with the Damned), and a debate on the ethics of necromancy. Ultimately, I thought that it was something that the character simply wouldn't do--not unless he saw no other way out of a situation. 1) There's not much use in a legless zombie minion; 2) even a de-powered Jay would think twice before tipping his hand to the Americans like that.

Arkrite wrote:I thought Cale suggested it to Jason... which made his reaction even more amusing ;~)

My hope was that you would all take the events of the last few chapters to be the joke themselves. "Yeah, right! Like you'd actually kill Adonis! On April 1st? I'll just wait for the real chapter, thank you very much!"

The joke would be that there was no joke, and that those are the actual chapters. Of course, there's a twist on them coming, but I don't want to spoil what's in store...

That's what I took it for, the "dreading the prank that never happens". And I refuse to accept Adonis dying yet, even if you didn't have an upcoming story-arc for him and the Affiliation ("Ira Deorum" if I remember correctly).

Michuru81 wrote:

Arkrite wrote:Though for the crime of perpetrating my most disliked trope "depowering supers and killing them like scrubs" I am now gleefully waiting for Vincent Haynes' demise.

Anytime the story shifts to Patriot Robotics, progress slows down. Largely, this is due to Noah's little hit squad being so bland and boring that I don't really like writing them. It's one of those concepts I dug, but could never really bring myself to execute well. To that end, they needed to die, and this helped Vincent go from Yes-Man to someone who can take care of himself.

In any case, I assure you that I'm about to take worse tropes and apply them to this story.

This got a chuckle out of me.

Michuru81 wrote:

Arkrite wrote:I thought Cale suggested it to Jason... which made his reaction even more amusing ;~)

As for the problem with Prompt, as much as I like Christmas, all I can say is...it's about time she went over to the dark side. She's waaay too powerful to make a compelling hero longterm, especially in the Oubliverse where one of the prerequisites for being a hero is the ability to be squished by the majority of your opponents. She'll make an excellent villain though, since she has plenty of firepower for squishing.

Yeah, that's the only reason I'm still on the fence about Foil, the tinfoil thing. But it works on two other levels-its a reference to Jason using a sword (although he would concede that his sword isn't actually a foil, its a unique construction closer to a rapier), and to 'foil' someone.

Plus, Jason realizes that identifying yourself as Prodigy means people will expect you to be intelligent. Calling yourself something more neutral means they have no idea what you're capable of right off the bat.

Hurm...maybe Enigma? He's got the body for Svelte, and that won't be taken for years.

Chapter CXXVII: Band on the RunLosing Noah Meinstein had been the hardest part. The spiny-tailed iguana of Costa Rica was the fastest reptile on land. While the Reptile’s ability allowed him to emulate the ctenosaura similis’ speed and sprint at twenty miles per hour, he was not fast enough to escape Noah Meinstein. While qualities borrowed from the chameleon might have let him blend into the shadows, it did nothing to protect the woman he carried on his back.

Doctor Colbenson was the Reptile’s only way out of the labyrinthine tunnels. As his ticket to freedom, he was hardly about to let Doctor Meinstein kill her. Still, coupled with the reflexes of the western fence lizard, the Reptile had turned the labyrinthine halls of Patriot Robotics’ sublevels against the man who had designed them. Darting around corners, he had shaken the scientist off his trail.

Galloping along diamond plate floors, the Reptile tried every door he passed until he found one that was unlocked. Dashing inside, he closed the door as gently as urgency would permit, and locked it behind him. “No one said anything about the old man being a Neo-Sapien,” he hissed between heavy breaths.

“It comes as a surprise to me too,” grumbled Doctor Colbenson.

His hands—cold and scaly—moved to her arms, and gently pulled them apart. As Doctor Colbenson climbed down from him, the Reptile turned to her with a pleading look. “How do we get out of here?” he asked.

“It’s going to be hard,” she said, “especially now. If Noah can’t find us, he’ll likely just wait for us at the exit.”

The Reptile swore. “Is there any other way out? Any secret passage or elevator you have access to?”

The woman shook her head.

“Fantastic,” the Reptile hissed. “Here, I saved you, thinking you were my key to freedom, and you’re really just as helpless here as I am.”

The woman scowled at her cold-blooded savior. “What about you? How did you even get down here?”

“I crawled through the air ducts.”

“And you can’t go back up them?”

The Reptile turned on her with a furious look. “Lady, do you think I’d be stuck down here if that was still on the table!?! The ducts have motion sensors installed in them. I shut the grid down when I came in, but someone’s turned it back on since then. As soon as we start booking it up one, they’re going to know right where we are.”

“Then we turn off the grid.”

“And how do you propose we do that?” the Reptile asked, rolling his eyes.

“I have a man on the inside.” She raised her voice to the ceiling. “Vincent, I need you to access the building’s security system and turn off the sensors in the sublevel’s ventilation.”

The Reptile stared at her strangely. “Did the stress of your boss trying to kill you knock something loose?”

“Vincent’s a Neo-Sapien: his power lets him hear things.”

“And I thought I got the shaft in the power department.”

“In any case, Vincent will have heard that. He’ll do as I tell him, and you can take me to the surface.”

With a sigh, the Reptile turned and began to scan the room. Sure enough, he soon spotted a vent cover, albeit one far too small for either of them to crawl through. “The rooms are serviced by smaller vents, shooting off of the larger ducts,” he reasoned aloud. “We’re going to have to go back out into the hall…”

“Noah’s out there!”

“Look, we have two options here: one, we can wait, and hope he gives up on finding us and just… heads to the closest exit to bide his time; or, we can go out there and find a duct to crawl in, and make our escape.

“The only downside? What if he doesn’t give up? What if he keeps going from room to room, and he finds us? In case you haven’t noticed, the only way out of this room is through that door, so if he finds us here? We’re dead.

Her distress conjured a smirk from the Reptile: she knew that she had no value to him. There was no reason for him to help her escape.

“I’m not going anywhere,” the Reptile said, “not yet anyway. Look, I’m going to need to find a hatch to get into the ventilation system, then I’m going to need to get it open. I’ll come back for you as soon as we’re ready to move.”

“Then you won’t mind if I have Vincent turn the sensors back on?” A devious grin flashed on her face. Perhaps she had some value after all… “Since you’re coming back for me, I mean…”

The Reptile rolled his eyes. “Do whatever you want, lady.” Cautiously, he cracked the door and peered outside. Feeling that the coast was clear, he softly closed the door behind him and hastily scaled the walls.

Crawling along the ceiling, the Reptile followed the shaft to a vent cover. In no time he had removed two of the screws, leaving two more at the top to give the illusion it was still secure. Making his way back to where he had left Doctor Colbenson, he spotted Doctor Meinstein in the hall, patiently going from room-to-room.With the sensors active, there was no telling who he would alert in making a break for it up the shaft. While it was likely to be a silent alarm, the Reptile had no way of knowing how long it would be before that information was relayed to Doctor Meinstein. Would he assume his prey was in the shaft and simply send an electric current up after them?

The safest way out was with that woman’s help, and the only way to retrieve her was to bring down the man hunting them.

Mentally cursing himself for winding up in such a predicament, the Reptile dropped down from the ceiling, landing behind Doctor Meinstein. Before the doctor could react, the Reptile grabbed his wrists and pulled the man’s arms behind his back. Almost immediately, he understood the folly of his actions: the energy spread across Noah’s body, sending a jolt through the Reptile, and forcing out a pained scream.

As the Reptile staggered back, Meinstein turned and swung his fist into the intruder’s chest. A look of surprise flashed over his face when he felt the resistance that the Reptile’s plastron imbued him with.

“Turtle shell,” the Reptile said, smirking. He backhanded Noah, sending the man down to the ground. “I thought you were a scientist, bitch?”

“I am,” Noah said, putting his hand to the metal floor of the hallway.

The floor carried the current to the Reptile and soon brought him down to Noah’s level. Noah grinned at the sight of his enemy lying still—unmoving. Once he was standing, he kicked the Reptile in the head, but conjured no movement from him. “Idiot,” he growled.

Turning his back on his fallen opponent, Meinstein moved to return to checking the rooms. Behind him, the Reptile suddenly sprang to life. His head lurched forward and he sank his teeth into the older man’s ankle. “Inland taipan venom,” the Reptile hissed, springing back to his feet once more.

Doctor Meinstein chuckled and pulled up his pant leg, revealing motor oil dripping from the bite marks. “A pity that my limbs are little more than advanced prosthetics,” he explained. “I do hope that wasn’t your final gambit.”

The man pulled back his fist and electricity coursed around it. As he readied himself to deliver a killing blow, Doctor Colbenson brought a metal pipe down over his head.

The sight of Doctor Meinstein collapsing before him spurred the Reptile to seize the moment and flee from the subterranean maze. Grabbing the woman doctor’s hand, he led her back down the corridor. “Did you find a vent big enough?” she asked.

“Screw that,” the Reptile hissed. “With him down, there’s nothing stopping us from just walking out the front door. You can access the elevators, right?”

Doctor Colbenson nodded.

“Fantastic,” the Reptile said, motioning for the woman to climb back onto his back. The injuries he had sustained in the scuffle against Doctor Meinstein slowed him down, but desperation pushed him to move as fast as he could. There was no telling when the man would regain consciousness—and no telling whether they’d be as fortunate against him, should their paths cross again.

After a few blunders, the Reptile made it to the elevator. Setting Doctor Colbenson down, he watched as she put her hand into the hole beside the door; she leaned forward, letting the sensor scan her retina; once she spoke her name, a dull ping emanated from the elevator, heralding the opening of the doors.

Doctor Colbenson hurried in, followed by the Reptile. He had half expected her to try and leave him behind. Maybe she had considered it, but realized she wouldn’t have the strength to stop him; maybe she felt she still needed his help in fleeing the building. Whatever had propelled her to do so, the woman failed to bar his path.

“So, what’s your deal?” he asked as the doors closed.

“What do you mean?”

“I know who you are: you work for the United Nations, right?” She leaned forward, and pressed the button for the twenty-third floor. The sublevel elevators only let off at certain floors, and that was the closest they could get to the surface. “You’re the one who let those Black Box goons start policing Neo-Sapiens last year?”

She hesitated before answering him: “Yes.”

“So, you hate us? Why are you letting me help you then? Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?”

“I don’t hate you,” she said, “I just… I think your kind are dangerous. I’m not calling for the annihilation of the Neo-Sapien race: just its leashing.”

“You want to control us?”

“Someone has to. The United Nations Security Council regulates what nations are allowed to have a nuclear weapons program, and some Neo-Sapiens are potentially more dangerous than any atom bomb. Besides, look at what happens when you’re left unchecked: Ragnarok, 9/11, the White War, the assassination of Senator Bedford, the murder of that Mueller boy…”

“And what about Neo-Sapiens like me?” the Reptile asked. “I’m hardly a threat to the American people.”

“We have regulations to keep convicted felons from owning firearms—not high-capacity, automatic weapons, but firearms. Granted, a man may not be able to wage a war with a single pistol, but that doesn’t make him any less dangerous.

“Look at what you’re doing right now: what’s to stop someone like you from sneaking into the Pentagon and stealing sensitive information that you could sell to our enemies? Given the array of mutations Neo-Sapiens demonstrate, it’s next to impossible for us to be prepared for each and every eventuality.

“Atlas, Jihad, Godai, Lodestone, Coldfire… They were all in the last decade. At the rate we’re going, society as we know it may be lost along the wayside…”

“You’re right,” the Reptile said, “but not for the reasons you think.

“Everything Atlas did, he did because of his father, right? His old man couldn’t accept that he had a Neo-Sapien for a son, and he disavowed him. If his father had loved him? Treated him the way a father is supposed to treat their son? Who knows how things would have worked out?

“You know the story of Oedipus? When an oracle prophesied that he would one day kill his father, his father tried to have him killed. The baby was raised by another couple, and when he grew up, he heard the same prophesy: he was destined to kill his father. In trying to escape it, he ended up on the same path as his biological father, and when they met…

“The point is: sometimes when you’re trying so hard to prevent something from happening, you end up making it happen.

“My powers manifested when I was about six or seven. Not long after that, my mom left me at a truck stop in New Jersey. Since then, I’ve become a thief, a drug dealer, and a murderer. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would have been if she’d just…” The car’s ascent slowed. The Reptile positioned himself to shield her, should the doors open to an ambush. When no one greeted them, Doctor Colbenson pushed the Reptile aside and led the way out.

“We have to assume Noah’s conscious by now,” she intoned. “He won’t have told his security team everything, but telling them that a big lizard man has broken in?”

“So, what you’re saying is that we’ll never get out the front doors.” The Reptile nodded. “No problem.” He took the woman by the hand and led her across the office—straight towards the window, overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

The Reptile took off his coat and then his shirt. “What are you doing?” she asked as he unbuckled his belt. Divested of his clothes, the Reptile balled them up and handed them to the perplexed woman.

He made his way over to a desk and took hold of it. With the raw strength of a crocodile, the Reptile hefted the desk into the air. He swiveled and his fingers released it, letting it fly for the window.

“What are you doing!?!” Doctor Colbenson exclaimed as a late autumn wind rushed in.

Stooping down, the Reptile pressed his arms against his sides, with his wrists touching his ankles. As he rose up, he lifted his arms, inspecting the thin membrane of skin that extended from his small finger to his ankles.

The Reptile stooped down and motioned for her to climb onto his back. “You’re not planning on climbing down the side of the building are you?”

“Climbing?” The Reptile asked. He kept his back to her, in an attempt to hide his nakedness. He spread his arms out, displaying the wings made of skin and muscle. “We’re going to fly down.”

“Fly?” she asked incredulously. “You can fly?”

“Pterodactyls were reptiles,” he explained. The Reptile nodded to his back. “Hop on.”

The woman took a step forward, and then she hesitated. She shook her head slowly. “I… I believe this is where we part ways. Thank you for all assistance.”

Chapter CXXVIII: The Sound of SilenceHe felt helpless. The booming thunder had heralded a gunshot that had brought down Adonis. In an instant, the others began to move: The Curler put himself between his teammates and where he had perceived the shot to have come from; the Aurelia went to work on conjuring metal walls to shield them from further attack; Horde’s hand went to his ear, to radio in what had happened; Doctor Jenkins and both Prodigies dropped to the ground beside Adonis, while Mirage moved to comfort Chienne.

Déjà vu, however, could do nothing more than stand back, and watch as Chienne held Adonis’ hands in hers, crying hysterically. She loved him, he realized. His teacher was in love with this man, and this man was now dead. Worse, he was dead, because Déjà vu had failed.

His power allowed him to glimpse the future while he dreamt. When he was unconscious, he experienced everything that would unfold from the moment he woke up, to the moment he closed his eyes again. All of this could have been prevented, if he could have used his powers.

Why? Why couldn’t he use them? Was it the barrier? The other Espers retained their abilities after the barrier appeared in the sky above them. That was why his girlfriend had jumped to action: her ability was conglomerating what medical training everyone around her had. Had Adonis not been brought down with a killing blow, she might have saved him. She might have proved her worth. Prodigy was not as helpless as he was.

Were his powers Neo-Sapien in origin? Prompt had never made use of his ability. He assumed that it was because she could only use them one at a time, and had never consciously evoked his powers as she fell asleep, but perhaps the reason she didn’t wake up every morning with knowledge of what the future held, was because she couldn’t imprint his powers. Perhaps he was a Neo-Sapien, and Autumn was suppressing his precognition?

But then why had the Fuhrer summoned his family to Peoria? The only ones drawn into the Sixth Reich’s web were those whose children were Espers. If he wasn’t an Esper, why had his parents suddenly decided to move to Illinois on the spur of the moment?

None of this made any sense, but then again, what aspect of his life had made sense since the day he met John Smith and Jessica Hague?

A burst of energy illuminated the enclosure the Aurelia had created around them. Fossick cried out when she saw the body; his visor broken, sorrow shone in Poral’s eyes as he looked down at the young man. “Did you find them?” Mirage asked.

Portal sighed dejectedly. “We came back as soon as Horde told us what happened. Fossick can find them again. Right now, we need to deal with this…”

Mirage nodded. He rose to a crouch and tried to pull Chienne up with him. “No.” She said it softly as he first tried to pull her away. Horde knelt down to help pull her away from Adonis. “NO!” she screamed at him. Shaking their hands away, she threw her body forward, collapsing atop Adonis.

“Chienne,” Portal said, “we need to get him back to the school. We can’t stay here.”

She didn’t respond. She just continued to cling to Adonis’ body.

“I’m sorry,” Portal said, bending to put his armored hands on her sides. Chienne grabbed Adonis and began to pull him up with her.

“I’m sorry, too,” Mirage said, slipping around behind her. He brought a hand down to the back of her head, silencing her protest, and relaxing the grip she had on Adonis’ corpse.

Holding Chienne’s unconscious form with one arm, Portal used the other to open a doorway back to the school. He turned and looked to Horde, nodding as his teammate scooped Adonis into his arms.

Déjà vu stood back, and watched as they made a silent procession through the doorway. “What about Fluxx and Mezzanine?” the male Prodigy asked. “They’re still in the sublevels, with Solar Flare and Sentry.”

“One thing at a time,” Portal said. “I’ll go back for them, but just… one thing at a time.”

He motioned for the magus to go through the portal, then nodded for Déjà vu to follow.

Stepping out into the Wreck Room, Déjà vu looked up to see several awaiting their arrival. Unable to meet their hopeful gaze, he turned and looked back as Mirage carried Adonis through, followed by Portal and Chienne.

“Adonis?” Lurker asked. “Chienne?” He made his way through the throng, only to stop at the sight of the entry wound.

His jaw went slack.

“We were outside Patriot Robotics,” Mirage said. “Portal and Fossick took off after-”

Doctor Howell waded out into their midst. “We are not doing that, Mister Kirk. I’ve come to know Zachary well, and I doubt he would-”

“What!?!” roared Lurker. “Avenge his son? What happened, doc? Realize you were standing there with the man who started the White War—the battle your son gave his life to stop—and thought, ‘I may not have another opportunity like this’?”

Doctor Jenkins did nothing but stare at Lurker sternly.

“Mister Kirk!” Doctor Howell roared. “I can understand how you must feel, but casting accusations about is hardly a productive-”

“Or maybe it was you, Quinton. Figure Adonis was to blame for your mom going cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?”

“Stop it,” growled Boson.

“It wasn’t us!” Horde snapped. “The guy had to have been across the street—perched in one of the adjacent buildings with a sniper rifle…”

“How did this mysterious gunman even know that you were all going to be there?” Black Widow asked. “Someone must have tipped him off. Maybe it was Forrest Bedford’s pride and joy. Maybe Chienne decided to go into the family business?”

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you saw how she was!” the Aurelia thundered, storming across the clearing to stand just feet from the more vocal members of the Affiliation. “She was devastated!”

“She’s a hell of an actress,” Lurker spat. “Just ask Magnus: she’s great at pretending to care about someone.”

The Aurelia slapped Lurker.

Portal moved closer to the headmaster and passed off Chienne. Before he could move, Déjà vu watched helplessly as Lurker flipped out a balisong.

If it hadn’t been for Autumn’s powers negating hers, the Aurelia’s cat-like reflexes would have let her dodge the blow. Instead, she was helpless as Lurker thrust the knife between her ribs.

The Curler didn’t say something humorous. He didn’t open his mouth to unleash some sort of nonsensical diatribe that would have raised an eyebrow or two. Instead, he roared, charged across the room, and backhanded Lurker with all his might.

Everyone had been evacuated to the school’s lowest level. The entire student body, the faculty, the wedding guests—everyone had been led into the Wreck Room, and left here with Adonis’ companions. Déjà vu watched helplessly as Doctor Howell’s attempt to protect everyone turned against him: the Affiliation had known about Autumn’s powers, and had been prepared to defend themselves in the event they suddenly found themselves without their powers.

Déjà vu watched as Pack Master knelt and pulled up the leg of his pants, revealing a long knife lashed to his calve. He watched as Gabrielle Farouk drew the twin daggers she’d been carrying crossed on her lower back. Cerulean drew the long, curved blade sheathed on her back while Beekeeper drew a pistol out from under the jacket he was wearing.

It’s stopping power was dwarfed, no doubt, by the submachine gun Black Widow drew from under the bulky hoodie she typically wore to conceal her extra arms.

Lurker’s body sailing through the air, and signaled to the Affiliation that it was time to avenge their leader…

Chapter CXXIX: EverlongProdigy was an Esper whose ability allowed her to absorb the knowledge of those around her. Her proximity to her boyfriend meant she had access to his kendo training—something useless to her now that Topher Emerson was wielding his psionic sword in an effort to defend himself against the Affiliation.

She was also bequeathed with a wealth of knowledge from Jason Lamperouge—the other Prodigy. She suddenly knew that, during the fifteenth century, William of Tewkesbury had been elected as the Aurelius. She knew that while his arcane aptitude rested in abjuration, his true talent was for invention; she knew that several of the magical devices he had created were part of the cache the current Aurelius safeguarded, and that others were locked away by the Thule Society. She knew that there was one item that both factions had searched for—that neither had found. It was the device that had allowed William to survive the Battle of Edgecote Moor, but had been stolen from him two years later at Barnet.

What Prodigy did not know was how the relic had ended up in the necromancer’s possession. Her ability allowed her to know the things which those around her had learned—not what they had experienced. Indeed, she hadn’t even known the boy had the item until he began to use it to shield the three of them from the barrage of bullets Rapunzel fired at them, but she knew its history, and its power: William’s Shield was simply a bracer that, when lashed to the forearm, was capable of manifesting a glowing disc of energy that effortlessly absorbed the brunt of any and all attacks. It was an ability that the male Prodigy now used to protect the Esper and her boyfriend from the Affiliation’s attack.

All around them, the Wreck Room descended into madness. Gabrielle Farouk had drawn a pair of daggers that resembled her soul-weapon, and with her back to a sword-wielding girl with blue hair, the two began to carve a path through the wedding guests of James Howell and Samantha Talley.

Not far off, Mirth and Girth had cornered Raanan Lumanta and were taking turns evoking pained screams from him.

The band that had played the Howell’s wedding was swinging guitars and microphone stands at Bile, who looked to be armed with nothing but a machete.

The bodies were piling up: Adonis, the Aurelia, Lurker, Dane, Circe, Magnitude, Bluetooth… The sight of Missus Altair’s body being added to the stack conjured an unfathomable rage in her husband. Mister Altair lunged for Black Widow and tackled her to the ground; pinning his former classmate beneath him, he unleashed a volley of frenzied punches to her jaw, and only stopped when Pack Master stabbed him in the back with a long, curved knife.

The necromancer had moved inch by inch towards Rapunzel, knowing that one of two things would occur: either he would get close enough for Déjà vu to move in and finish her, or she would exhaust her ammunition. It was the latter that gave them respite from her attack. Seizing the moment, the Japanese boy lunged out from behind the male Prodigy’s protection and swung his bokken into her ribs.

The young woman doubled over, and Prodigy raised the wooden sword high before bringing it down over her back. Rapunzel crumbled, and the boy breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” the mage snapped.

The female Prodigy surveyed the battlefield and saw Portal and the Curler were still up. Even if the majority of those gathered here were denied their powers, those two would be enough to ensure victory over the Affiliation.

It was just a matter of surviving long enough for those two to finish everyone else.

“Cale! Kasunda!” The sound of her given name summoned her attention; Prodigy looked up to see John Smith and Jessica Hague stepping over Solon Carlyle and Mindy Dawson’s bodies to reach them.

Once upon a time, Prodigy had met the couple in Peoria. Back then, they weren’t dating. They were just New Vindicators, on a mission to find and liberate any of their friends still held by Black Box. Unbeknownst to Cale and Kasunda, however, John and Jessica were moles who reported to the Affiliation’s leader.

“Stop,” the male Prodigy ordered, clutching the necklace he wore.

“It’s okay,” Déjà vu said, “they’re our friends.”

“They weren’t at the wedding,” said the sorcerer. “Aren’t they Affiliation?”

“Yes,” Déjà vu said, “but they’re still our friends.”

“We can trust them,” Prodigy said.

The male Prodigy sighed. “Sorry, but right now, I don’t trust anyone.”

“It’s a sentiment others will likely share,” Prodigy said. A woman’s wail called her attention around to the melee: the blue-haired girl from the Affiliation was pulling her sword out of Portal’s shattered visor. Even from across the Wreck Room, the crimson staining the steel was apparent to Prodigy.

Portal’s body didn’t crumble; the armor kept him standing in sort of a half-crouch—a monument of where he had lost his life in the most senseless of fights. As a de-powered Hourglass charged the girl, determined to avenge her teammate, the girl callously swung her blade and claimed the Vindicator’s head.

It was a sight that brought an unearthly roar from the last Vindicator: the Curler alone still stood.

“We have to get you two out of here,” Prodigy said, looking to Renewal and Fluke. She knew that this fight transcended sense now: both sides had lost lives to this, and neither would likely concede until all of their enemies were down.

Grabbing Renewal’s hand, Prodigy hurried for the door. Déjà vu and Fluke were behind their girlfriends; the male Prodigy remained behind, quickly casting a spell that Kasunda’s powers told her would animate the corpses of those who had fallen here, and force them to fight for him.

Beyond the door, the couples hurried down the hallway, darting past the vacant War Room and through the Infirmary.

“We can’t leave!” Déjà vu argued. “Kasunda, we saw what happened! We were there when Adonis died! We can tell them-”

“What?” Prodigy asked. “What can we possibly tell them that wasn’t already said?” At the elevator, she frantically began pushing the button. “The Affiliation knows how Adonis died, but they still think we had something to do with it, Cale! They think the sniper was working for us!” The doors opened, and she hurried inside the car. “They think we arranged Adonis’ death and refuse to listen to reason! The only thing we can do is get away…”

As the car carried them back to the surface, Prodigy found herself wondering where to go now. Should they just leave the school, and try to slip into a normal life?

Was that possible? With the exception of the Curler, the Vindicators were dead. Many of their teachers were dead. There would be no one to keep Black Box from combing through the ruins of the school, finding the records, and using them to destroy whatever sense of normalcy the two couples found.

It was fight or flight: if they stayed to fight, they would die, Prodigy reasoned; if they ran though, would they ever stop running?

“We need to find the others,” she said, stepping out into the foyer. “Carl and Gideon and the French kid and Girl-Gideon. We need to tell them what happened here. They still have powers—they can…”

“They can what?” Déjà vu asked. “Kasunda, people are dead. There’s nothing we can do now.”

Fluke frowned. “Worst. Wedding guests. Ever,” he muttered in his best Comic Book Guy voice.

Ignoring them, Prodigy dashed for the stairwell. “My room’s just up a floor,” she said. “Cale and I need to get clothes; these uniforms will draw too much attention.”

At the second floor, their separated: Déjà vu and Fluke hurried up to the fifth floor—to Déjà vu’s room—while Prodigy and Renewal hurried through the girl’s dormitories. They said nothing until they were inside: Prodigy closed the door and hurried to her closet. Ordinarily, she would have spent some time mulling over what to wear, but time was of the essence. She grabbed what she was most comfortable in: an oversized sweater and yoga pants. As she hastily began to strip, she worked over the plan for their escape: we’ll leave the school, take the F train, get off at Lexington Avenue, and try to reach Carl and the others.”

“So, you and Cale?” asked a cheeky Renewal. “How’s that going?”

Prodigy rounded on her with an incredulous look. “Most of our friends are dead a hundred feet below us, and you want to talk about boys?”

Renewal shrugged. “I haven’t seen you since-”

“Since you and your boyfriend decided to join the bad guys?”

Renewal’s blonde tresses whipped back and forth as she shook her head. “It’s not like that,” she said. “The Affiliation… They’re freedom fighters, Kasunda. Our group… When we went to Peoria the first time—to find Black Box’s prisoners? It made us sick. John and I never wanted to see something like that happen again, so…” She sighed. “We wanted to make a difference.”

Prodigy slipped on a pair of trainers. “Well, you’ve all certainly made a difference tonight.”

As Renewal’s face was skewed into a guilty frown, Prodigy headed towards the door. On edge, given the turn the night had taken, she put her ear to the door; only when she was confident no one was patrolling the halls, looking for her, did she dare open it.

Together, they made their way back down the hall, and delved once more into the stairwell. Sounds were rising up towards them—someone was in the foyer. Prodigy’s heart raced: there was no way the Affiliation would be able to bring down the Curler. If the fighting was over, it was likely that the Affiliation was finished, and Prodigy was harboring one half of their surviving forces…

Heavy footfalls were coming from above—it almost sounded like Déjà vu and Fluke were stampeding down them. If she could hear them, those below could as well. If they spotted Renewal, they might attack her on sight. She needed to defuse this quickly…

Motioning for Renewal to stay point, Prodigy made her way down the stairs. She stepped onto the ground floor, turned the corner, and came face to face with the Affiliation’s surviving forces.

“She’s one of them!” the blue-haired girl shouted.

Prodigy’s jaw dropped as Gabrielle Farouk stepped forward. “I’m sorry, Kasunda,” she whispered before slipping one of her daggers into the girl’s side.

By my count that's about seven or eight of the vindicators dead and one of the affiliation unconcious... Including one guy in a giant suit of power armor that shoots lightning....The good guys really suck :~P